This invention relates generally to a device for clipping individually each nail of an animal such as a dog or cat or the like, and specifically to an animal nail clipper that will securely hold the animal's nail relative to the clipping blade while providing for cutting the nail at the desired length.
Most animals dislike having their nails clipped. Oftentimes the animals squirm and move around making it difficult to clip off the desired amount. Should too much nail be clipped off, an animal can be injured resulting in pain and bleeding of the animal.
Various animal nail clippers have been shown in the prior art such as U.S. Pat. No. 2,955,354 issued to Laing and U.S. Pat. No. 3,838,507 issue to Clark. One of the great deficiencies in prior art clippers is that there is no provision for holding the nail with respect to the clipping blades in such a position to cut the desired amount of nail, to prevent cutting the nail too short, which may result in injury.
The present invention overcomes this deficiency by providing hand actuated nail clippers for an animal which allow the user to clip the nail safely at the desired length while firmly securing it relative to the cutting blade during the cutting operation. This prevents the animal from squirming or moving while the nail is being cut since the nail is firmly held at the desired length relative to the cutting blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,955,354 issued to Laing employs a stop mounted above the cutting blade to prevent penetration through the aperture. The first problem is that the aperture does not firmly hold the nail since it is of a fixed size and secondly the arm that stops penetration of the nail is fixed relative to the blade opening such that there can be no compensation for variation between different animals as to the amount of length cut. The present invention, on the otherhand, insures that the nail is firmly held in the aperture relative to the blade opening, while at the same time the desired length of cut may be achieved while still permitting penetration only to a particular location.